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The Slovenian job

In Slovenia, the founder and former leader of the populist party that leads the governing coalition is staging a comeback that threatens to bring down both the government and the prime minister.

Zoran Jankovic, the mayor of Ljubljana, announced last week Wednesday (2 October) that he would challenge Alenka Bratušek, the current prime minister, for the leadership of the centre-left Positive Slovenia, the party that he founded two years ago and led to triumph in a general election in December 2011. Back then, Slovenia’s established centre-left parties shied away from a coalition with Jankovic, paving the way for a centre-right administration, which collapsed after its prime minister, Janez Janša, was accused of bribery.

The same scandal embroiled Jankovic, so his leadership was unacceptable to the other members of the putative coalition. Instead Jankovic – temporarily, as he stressed – let Bratušek, a finance expert, take over both the leadership of the party and the prime minister’s office in Feburary. However, ever since the charismatic, combative Jankovic has towered behind the pale Bratušek. Now he is seeking to re-assert his hold over the party and the government.

If Jankovic returns to the party leadership, that is likely to cause the collapse of the ruling coalition and, given the parlous state of the public finances, that might force Slovenia to seek a bail-out from the rest of the eurozone. Bratušek declared on Thursday (3 October) that she would resign as prime minister should Jankovic take his old job again. The junior coalition partners have announced that they will not work with a Jankovic-led PS.

The party’s leadership has now postponed a party congress that was initially scheduled for next week, without setting a replacement date.

With the vultures on the financial markets circling, will Slovenia follow the example of Italy, where Enrico Letta saw off a challenge from Silvio Berlusconi, or will Jankovic take Slovenia down its own distinctive path to rack and ruin?